


be my baby

by johnny-and-dora (sian_jpg)



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, Feelings Realization, One-Shot, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Valentine's Day Fluff, because apparently i only write pining now sorry guys, mid season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 16:50:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17770577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sian_jpg/pseuds/johnny-and-dora
Summary: “Are you okay? You’re spacing out again.” If he didn’t know better, Jake would think she actually sounds concerned. He knows she worries, a lot – he’s seen her stress braiding and shame smoking more times than he would like, and he’s coached her through more than one panic attack that was terrifying for the both of them. He wishes he knew what to do to help.He wonders if she ever worries about him.or, jake absolutelydefinitelycouldn't care less about amy's love life.(mid season 1 pining)





	be my baby

**Author's Note:**

> okay i might be making this up but i'm pretty sure i read AGES ago that when mel auditioned/screen tested for amy, her and andy had to do a scene where they ask about each others dates while trying not to make it obvious that they're interested in each other's love lives, which is SO cute and formed the basic inspiration for this. let's say it's somewhere between 1x13 and 1x17
> 
> happy galentine's day, babes <3

It’s not like Jake _hates_ Valentine’s Day.

He has no real reason to – unlike needless turkey murder day, there are no painful childhood memories of his absentee father breaking promises permeating this particular holiday, no having to sample his mom’s burnt cooking, no obligations to be in the holiday spirit. Sure, Jenny Gildenhorn ripped up the valentine’s card he made for her in eighth grade and he cried for like, a week, but his teenage heartbreak isn’t enough to ruin the day completely.

Not there are any particular warm and fuzzy memories he can recall, either - he signs up for the late shift or takes the overtime every year, and he usually spends it drowning out the fact that he’s probably going to die alone with seemingly endless piles of paperwork. He was first to volunteer for this stakeout tonight without a second thought, because usually Valentine’s Day comes and goes as little more than an excuse to bulk buy discount heart shaped candy.

This year, however, is different.

This year, he just so happens to be spending Valentine’s Day with Amy.

Not _with_ Amy, of course – he means, with Amy in the sense that Amy is in his presence, sitting next to him in the passenger seat, anxiously drumming her nails against the dashboard and checking her watch every twenty-two seconds (not that he’s counting). Definitely absolutely not in the sense that he and Amy are dating, because as he’s told Charles several times – that’s _straight up insanity._

He does not like Amy – and he definitely doesn’t care about Valentine’s Day. What’s more, he definitely hasn’t spent most of this stakeout with his jaw clenched as Amy complains about how she had to cancel a date with a guy she refuses to tell him anything about. He couldn’t care less about her dating life.

It doesn’t bother him _at all._

“The deal was meant to go down twenty minutes ago. Do all perps have to have your time management skills?” She says, scrunching up her face in that cute little way she does whenever she gets frustrated. he’d come back with an epic burn, but he’s slightly too busy thinking about how he doesn’t care about Jenny Gildenhorn and how he doesn’t care about Amy’s love life and also how shiny Amy’s hair is.

“Peralta?”

“What?” He says. She furrows her brow.

“Are you okay? You’re spacing out again.” If he didn’t know better, Jake would think she actually sounds concerned. He knows she worries, a lot – he’s seen her stress braiding and shame smoking more times than he would like, and he’s coached her through more than one panic attack that was terrifying for the both of them. He wishes he knew what to do to help.

He wonders if she ever worries about him.

“Okay dude, now you’re just creeping me out.”

“Sorry. Just thinking.” Jake says, quickly averting his gaze, feeling heat creep up his neck as he clears his throat. He returns to his previous activity of absentmindedly and chaotically drumming at ten and two on the steering wheel. She stares at him for a second before turning her attention back to the old dilapidated building they think is being used as a crack den. So romantic.

He’s been stealing glances at her all evening while he can get them – she’s more fidgety that usual, twisting her grandmothers ring on her finger, tapping her foot, chewing on her tongue. He feels bad that she had to miss her date for this  – but less bad than he’d care to admit.

Okay, so maybe the concept of him maybe liking Amy isn’t straight up insanity.  
(He’s been staring at her like an idiot for the past four years. It’s not Charles’s greatest solve.)  
  
“…So, what’s he like?”

“What?”

“Your date.” He doesn’t know why he asks – maybe to kill time, maybe to keep the conversation going, maybe because he’s just curious. Amy narrows her eyes slightly like she doesn’t trust him genuinely taking an interest in her personal life, which is actually a little hurtful if he overanalyses it too hard.

She’s a friend – he’ll be the first to admit that his minor obsession with his kick-ass job means that he doesn’t have too many of those. There’s even fewer people in his life that stick around, and maybe he finds Amy’s consistency grounding, if he thinks about it in that way. Maybe it’s nice to know that someone has his back.

He’s never sure if she thinks of him in the same way. Jake’s just glad to know her, really, even if she is a dorky loser who’s always correcting his grammar and disapproving of his eating habits. That’s  why he asks, really, because he does care, even if he’s made uncomfortable by it.

“What?” He shrugs, a defensive edge to his voice. “I really wanna know.”

She gives him a weird look before sighing, fiddling with the lid of her coffee cup, biting her lip like she always does when she’s nervous or apprehensive about something.

“He’s…nice.”

“Nice?” He wonders whether that’s all he has to be. She rolls her eyes.

“I don’t know. He’s a paediatric nurse and he’s sweet and we’ve been on a few dates and he’s just…nice.”

“That’s…nice.” Jake says, grinning as he mimics the pregnant pauses in her responses. She shoots him Classic Santiago Death Glare #5.

“Shut up!” Amy punches him in the arm and sits back in her seat, folding her arms defensively while he laughs. She tries to hide it by determinedly staring out the window, but he can tell that she’s smiling. He feels weirdly lighter for it.

It hits him that he’s happy – like, actually _happy._ That there aren’t many places he’d rather be tonight, and he really doesn’t think there’s anyone else he’d rather spend tonight of all nights sitting in a car staring at a crack den with. It’s a thought he’d rather push deep, deep down then act on, because the alternative is a whole world of terrifying possibilities that he is woefully unprepared to explore.

There’s a few beats of silence that make even the low hum of the radio feel far too loud.

“I’m sorry you had to cancel.” The sincerity just kind of spills out of him. He doesn’t like it.

“It’s not your fault, dummy.”

“We could’ve made the night shift do it.” He offers, but she shakes her head.

“It’s fine. Honestly, I was a little relieved.” She says, and he raises an eyebrow. There’s another brief silence while they watch someone walk by on the street outside - long enough for an fleeting intense vision of Amy confessing his undying love for him. Jake swallows thickly, willing his stupid brain to imagine _something, anything_ else.

“I think I’m going to break up with him.” Amy says suddenly, still staring straight ahead, and this is new - for once, he can’t think of anything to say.

She finally looks at him after a pause that’s a second too long, dark eyes all wide and curious.  He inclines his head slightly, trying to ignore the weird way he can suddenly feel his heart trying to burst out of his chest. It’s probably the caffeine.

“…Really? But he’s so…nice.” He says, half joking. She just rolls her eyes.

“It’s just not working out. We never have nights off together so we never see each other and…I don’t know. You know when you just…know?” She’s gesturing vaguely and he probably wouldn’t get what she means if they hadn’t been partners for four years. But they have, and he knows her better than he’d ever have the balls to openly admit, so he nods.

“Yeah. I do.” He says, because he does. Amy lets her hands fall back into her lap and she smiles at him and _maybe_ there’s this tiny little cosmic shift between them, not unlike the one he might have felt on the rooftop last month, or the one when she bought him a coffee and they gossiped about the Sex Crimes Christmas Party in the copy room last week.

It’s nothing, really. But it could be.

“You just know that nothing will ever top our date, because you’ve been secretly lusting after me since-“

“- I will strangle you-“

“- the day we met.” She glares at him, pushing him playfully while he grins.  If he wasn’t sure they were friends before he’s pretty certain now, and it feels good, even if she does spend the large majority of their friendship physically assaulting him every time he teases her.  

As a peace offering, he gives her one of the lint covered sweetheart candies he finds in the pocket of his hoodie, a light pink “be my baby”. She smirks at him and he raises his eyebrows suggestively as she laughs and he has to admit this isn’t the _worst_ Valentine’s Day he’s ever had. It might just make the top ten.

Amy’s confession of undying love for him ends up coming a bit late, because they catch their drug dealer ten minutes later and then other things rudely get in the way like lame pilsner-loving boring boyfriends and dream undercover assignments and defence attorney heartbreakers.

(It’s worth the wait - the next time they spend Valentine’s Day together, there’s wine and rose petals and Die Hard involved. She whispers “I love you” in his ear during a candlelight dinner, and again later when he’s tipsy and fumbling to unzip her dress, and it causes a cosmic shift that’s enough to change his whole universe altogether.)

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! i just wanted to write something cute and seasonal tbh  
> promise i'll return to established relationship soon haha it's just so fun to write these losers being lovestruck clueless losers <3
> 
> find me on tumblr @johnny-and-dora <3


End file.
